Remington HD Ultimate Home Defense Fails to Load in Magazine of P40

[at_liberty]

I went back to the store tonight to return the bullets and see what the problem was. It turns out that the Remingtons that I bought are 180 grain, which explains why they don't fit the magazine correctly. They recommended that I use either 155 or 165 grain bullets instead and sure enough they worked well when we tried loading them.

That's one I hadn't encountered before. Checking my reference books, I find that the higher bullet weight comes from sectional density, not size or shape. You still have to work with the same overall length (OAL) limits. It still comes down to measuring these problem cartridges with calipers and defining the overall length to make any sense of the problem and the supposed solution.

Coincidentally, I just pulled about a dozen or so bullets this morning from reloads that wouldn't chamber. The .40 SW is very particular about not being over 1.135 OAL, preferably not real close, more like 1.125 like my gauge. Staying back at about 1.123 +_.003 is working well. That is truncated cone FMJ range ammo, not bling hollow points.

My .40 SD ammo of choice is Hornady, but PDX1 or HST are good performers also. I am going to buy more PDX1 next time.

p.s. I care because I am sitting on a stash of 2000 of the 180 gr FMJ-TC bullets from Zero plus 650 completed rounds I bought of 180 gr with Berry's plated bullets.

[Mits3kgt88]

Oh ok, I didn't know that part about what makes the weight of bullets more. I was thinking length to increase the mass and that was what made them not fit properly.

[Bawanna]

Oh ok, I didn't know that part about what makes the weight of bullets more. I was thinking length to increase the mass and that was what made them not fit properly.

Alot of the weight is gained by density as At Liberty mentioned. Sometimes the bullet is actually longer but the length has to go into the case, hence slightly less powder capacity which in some cases don't matter and in some cases does. Any cartridge whatever caliber has to stay within the outer dimension specs. Most importantly OAL Over All Length.
In a perfect world an 40 S&W cartridge should fit and function in any 40 S&W chambered gun. Obviously we're far from a perfect world but at least in bullets we're much closer than other things.

[jlottmc]

My thoughts are that the gun shop saw that you were less experienced, and just didn't want to deal with you. They buffaloed you. As has been said SAAMI spec means that 40 is 40 all over town. The OAL is where you had problems, and OAL is rarely affected by weight, when it is, it is not factory loads. Usually, OAL and length issues are encountered by bench rest shooters while trying to fine tune their rifles. I would ask Remington about it anyway, they will want to know the batch number, if you still have it.

[Mits3kgt88]

Yeah, probably so, and I did tell them that I'm new to it. I didn't take a picture of the bottom of the bullets or box for the batch number. I forgot to do that before I returned them. Hopefully they tell Remington or someone who is also as unfortunate as I was does.

[jlottmc]

The 165's and 155's are good stuff too. I used to keep my 40 loaded with the same 155gr load that DHS uses. I now have 180 Winchester Rangers in it. As long as you feel ok to carry that load, then I wouldn't worry about it.

[8th SPS USAF]

Remington ammo

We had the Remington trailer at a local store Sat and I reported

what was said here, and he had not hear about that. He said

he would contact the proper people next week. BS I do not

know, he might.

8th